9 months!

Crazy, but Nicholas has turned 9 months old. This time has gone so, so fast and at the same time, it seems like I can hardly remember our life without him as part of our family!

He is growing like a weed, although, he is now starting to grow into himself - growing up more than he's growing out!!! He went for his well visit yesterday and is doing great. He now weighs 21 pounds, 6 ounces and is 28-1/2 inches tall. He is now back down to the 75 percentile in both height and weight. His head measured 18-1/2 inches, which is in the 50th percentile. He only gained about 1-1/2 pounds, but grew 2 inches since his 6 month visit. We talked with the doctor about transitioning him to table food because he's so interested and he said that we can start with anything that he'll eat, we just still need to be careful until we completely rule out any food allergies. His eczema is still pretty bad, but we're doing pretty much all we can for him right now with daily lathering of aquaphor. The doctor said that even though it looks bad, it doesn't feel as dry as it can sometimes be, so we must be treating it properly.

So as for some milestones at 9 months:

He's got 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on the bottom and LOTS of drool this week, so he might be cutting some more I just can't see yet.

He's been super healthy except for one cold that lasted about a week. He sounds like he's getting another one the past couple of days - icky nose and coughing.

He says mama, dada and uh-oh (which he grunts). If you ask him to say bye-bye, he makes that sound by strumming his bottom lip and making a sound, but that's totally consistant everytime you ask him to say it.

He signs "more", but does it with open hands (unless they stuffed with puffs or cheerios).

He does "so big" and still does it by grabbing his hands together and sticking his fat little head through the opening over his head.

He has started to give open mouth kisses!!!

He can stand alone in the middle of the floor and I suspect is about a couple of weeks away from taking his first step.

He is sure getting a funny personality - makes funny faces like this one:

making this "o" shaped thing with his lips and then laughs!

He also snickers a lot, scrunching up his nose and making a funny smile face and a snarl sound with his nose....he's funny!

He loves to eat! He has 3 meals of solid baby food and rice cereal and snacks on puffs and cheerios

And this week has started mooching from anything we're eating. Now that we've gotten the OK from the doctor, we'll probably start sharing with him more. I will try yogurt this weekend, but he like little pieces of chicken we had the other night and canned green beans & carrots. He's still getting 4 bottles a day too.

He's got some real rhythm in his bones - dances any time he hears music and likes to clap to the music with a huge smile on his face!

He growls a lot more than he talks with a cute little baby voice and he likes to play rough. He's full of energy and has finally been sleeping a little better at night. He still wakes 2-4 times a night and cries, but since we haven't been going into his room very much, he's crying less loud and not as long. He'll sleep until about 7-7:30 on his own most mornings. He is ready for bed by 8-8:30 most nights. He still takes a short morning nap and about a 2 hour afternoon nap.

He's outgrown his pumpkin car seat and is now in the regular car seat in both cars - we'll be putting a bunch of baby stuff on Craigslist since we're DONE with it!!!

He's really hard to sit and take a picture anymore, but here he is on Thursday when he turned 9 months! We're going tomorrow to take some professional pics - hopefully that goes OK. Here is about as good as I could do the other day.

Hannah and Nicholas love to play together and they do it so well. Of course, Nicholas pushes his way into wherever he wants, but Hannah lets him most of the time - she loves that little guy! They sure are buddies!

And they sure had fun basket riding the other day!

We sure love this life!